Health authorities from the Mexican state of Chiapas and Guatemala presented the Border Measles Prevention Strategy, which includes simultaneous actions on both sides of the border to interrupt the chain of transmission of the virus.
Omar Gómez Cruz, Secretary of Health for Chiapas, said that a sanitary cordon is being established through brigades and vaccination sites, house-to-house visits, and health promotion activities.
“These actions reinforce the close relationship between our border with Guatemala, allowing us to mirror each other’s efforts and prevent explosive measles outbreaks,” the state official said during the presentation.
He stated that more than 1.2 million vaccines have been administered in Chiapas, and that these prevention efforts have prevented hospital services from becoming overwhelmed.
“Even though we have cases (621 confirmed since the outbreak began), it is under control and contained,” he affirmed.
José Luis Alvarado Valenzuela, Mexico’s consul in Guatemala, emphasized that authorities on both sides have been on alert for several months and have established measles prevention measures, which are being reinforced with the strategy presented this Friday.
“This border area has the highest level of exchange between the two countries. There’s a constant flow of people coming and going, and significant cross-border activity that needs to be monitored,” he commented.
Authorities explained that the simultaneous actions include case detection and identification, sanitary checkpoints, health sweeps, vaccination centers, health promotion, and epidemiological surveillance, both for the resident population and those in transit.
Guatemalan officials Rolando López Crisóstomo, governor of the department (state) of San Marcos; Elisa Barrios, an official from the Ministry of Health; and Juan Pablo Velázquez, an epidemiologist, also participated in the strategy’s presentation.
Source: jornada
